IT-B's Techfest saw a tremendous footfall of I around 50,000 on Saturday, a figure that went up by almost 20,000 in comparison to Friday. While the prosthetic arms, life size humanoid robots, sand drawing robots at the Exhibition continued to impress visitors, sessions with top notch scientists such as Vint Cerf (nicknamed “The Father of Internet“), Bjarne Stroustrup (the inventor of computer programming language C++), and high energy nuclear collision scientists from Europe lent academic gravity to Day 2 of IIT's mega science and technology festival.

At the stall by ASET Robotics, an amused gathering of students was cheering a robot performing headstands, push-ups, and playing football. Diwakar Vaish, head of robotics and research at the New Delhi based institute, said, “We have also designed “Manav“, the first 3D printed robot that was designed, printed, and manufactured in India.“

The exhibitions by the Army and the Navy were also crowd pullers, with children scrambling to touch the automatic grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, and radar systems on display.

Speaking to Mirror, Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of influential computer language C++ that is taught in many Indian schools, shared his tongue-in-cheek advice for computer geeks who want to follow his footsteps. “My advice to people who want to write their own programming language is ­ don't. Not one in 1000 computer languages is actually useful.“

Stroustrup was also critical of the “sub-optimal way“ C++ was taught in most schools and colleges and said that when he looked at a poorly written C++ textbook, he would have “smoke coming out of his ears for the next two weeks.“

On a more serious note, Stroustrup was happy that many Indian students studied C++ and said he hoped that they studied it ambitiously, as it was one of the few languages where a single
bright individual could make a strong contribution to the subject.

Paolo Giubellino, an internationally renowned particle physicist from Europe's CERN, enthralled a packed hall with his thrilling descriptions of high energy nuclear collisions research ­its risks and its amazing potential to change the way we thought about matter.

Keeping the crowd entertained throughout were Techfest favourites such as Power Zorbing, an F1 racing simulator, all terrain vehicle racing, paintball and laser tag arenas, as well as a mesmerising performance by German contact juggler Kelvin Kalvus.